Dear John,
WOLA is deeply concerned about the decision in the U.S House of Representatives to defer all aid to Colombia.
For those interested in understanding more, I recently co-authored an article in La Nueva Prensa with Raudemar Ofunshi Hernández about the complex politics surrounding this decision.
As part of our advocacy efforts this week, we worked with the Latin America Working Group (LAWG) to organize two letters - one from U.S. civil society and another from Colombian organizations - to urge Members of Congress to support the Senate version of the FY2024 foreign operations bill for Colombia.
Doing so would guarantee funding towards the consolidation of peace, the respect for human rights, support for Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities, as well as Venezuelan migrants and the communities that receive them. Over 250 organizations from the U.S. and Colombia (including coalitions) supported this effort.
The dire security situation facing the civilian populations in the departments of Cauca and Chocó is leading to humanitarian crises. The Cauca department is where most assassinations take place– with 22 killings of social leaders, human rights defenders, and signatories of the Peace Agreement out of more than 120 in the country so far this year. That is why this week WOLA joined international organizations working in Colombia in calling on the government to take action in both these areas.
This week WOLA also hosted an event about the gendered attacks on human rights leaders in Colombia which you can watch here.
Thank you for supporting Colombia during these challenging times and do read other WOLA news this week on Honduras, Guatemala, Peru, Mexico and more...
Best,
